


the art of governance

by yunmin



Series: Distant Horizons [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Politics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 21:31:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7191326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunmin/pseuds/yunmin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Would you like a job?” Leia Organa asks, once she’s got the charges dismissed.</i>
</p>
<p> <i>“I haven’t even graduated yet,” Poe responds. “And ma’am, I don’t really think it’ll do your political career any good if you’re seen hiring trouble-makers like me.”</i></p>
<p> <i>“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” she says. “We could use a few more people like you.”</i></p>
<p>Ten moments in Poe Dameron's life, from being a child on an RAF base in rural Suffolk to campaigning for a seat in the House of Commons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the art of governance

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for a prompt on tumblr, where the request was a vague: "short, possibly fluffy stormpilot story set in "our" world, preferably London". My brain took that an promptly went "sounds like a great idea for a politics!au" and was utterly unable to stick to the actual request. The original post is [here](http://drinkupthesunrise.tumblr.com/post/145802221936/well-hey-there-i-only-follow-you-for-a-few-days) if you are curious.

**i )**

Poe Dameron grows up in Suffolk, while his mother works between RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall. She flies the big fighter planes that he and the other kids hear roaring above their heads, sometimes. When he is eight there is an accident where his mom almost dies. He remembers being pulled out of class and one of the teaching assistants sitting with him until a very tall man Poe kinda recognised showed up, in uniform, looking very sorry. Then it was touch and go whether Shara would pull through, and Poe spends a week with his father at her bedside, praying desperately for his mom to make it through.

She retires, after that, and the Damerons go back home to the midwest.

**ii )**

At eighteen, Poe returns to the UK for university. He studies Mechanical Engineering at Heriot-Watt, throwing himself into his course and student life. He and Karé and Iolo and Muran form an unbreakable bond, and Poe understands why people say that these are the best days of your life. Staggering back from the pub, under the lights of Edinburgh Castle, with Muran’s arm round his shoulder, he wonders if anything will ever feel this right.

Meanwhile, Leia Organa’s star is rising.

**iii )**

Poe’s first taste of political demonstration comes at twenty-one, when the country is on the brink of war. He and the others join the thousands on the streets, painting anti-war symbols on their faces. Someone burns an American flag on the campus grounds in protest; Poe responds with an essay on Western Imperialism. There is a duty of care, he’ll argue, and there is a time and a place for people to risk their lives in defence of all that is good. This is not the time.

Yes, his mother fought, but his mother was in the airforce for a love of flying rather than one of duty. He knows that she doesn’t approve of the war, the political ideation behind it; recognises that the world is on a knife point and they’re about to come crashing down on the wrong side of it.

Before long, he is at the forefront of a new political movement, heading marches and screaming into a megaphone to make his voice head above the dinn (not that he needs too, because people stop and listen when Poe speaks; he has a presence that is entrancing). He gets arrested – disturbance of the peace, supposedly – and sits in a cell cooling off until someone comes for him. He expects Iolo, with his world weary look of Poe, you’ve got to stop this, but instead he finds the Right Honourable Leia Organa, MP, standing in front of him.

“Would you like a job?” she asks, once she’s got the charges dismissed.

“I haven’t even graduated yet,” Poe responds. “And ma’am, I don’t really think it’ll do your political career any good if you’re seen hiring trouble-makers like me.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” she says. “We could use a few more people like you.”

(later, Poe will learn that Leia Organa knew his mother many long years ago, and that she’s been keeping an eye on him since he arrived back in the country.)

**iv )**

Organa is fierce and absolute in her beliefs, and not afraid of showing them. The Party Whip loses patience with her quickly, and Poe becomes an expert in corralling the press to overlook some of her more… excessive statements. And then he’ll go and say something stupid himself, and begin the process again.

(Leia’s husband, Han, knows well enough to just say no comment whenever he’s asked anything, though he is guilty of flipping reporters off far too many times for Poe to count.)

It doesn’t take long before Organa breaks with the party leadership. “We can go it alone, Dameron,” she says to Poe, one evening. “It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll be better for it. Are you with me?”

“’Til the end, Ma’am,” he replies.

**v )**

Even though Poe has spent an awful lot of time in London over the years, he still hates it. The Palace of Westminster is pretty, yes, but that’s no real recompense for the sheer number of people he has to fight through to get to work everyday. The pollution that hangs in the air, making everything a little duller. Leia leads her own party now, and there are a number of them with Commons seats, but they are still viewed as outsiders.

And Poe is running late to a meeting with some very important documents, and the tube to Westminster is down, so he’s sprinting down London streets, desperately dodging through crowds because Leia needs to documents he has in his bag. He steps out into the road without looking, only to be knocked back by a cyclist as a car goes whizzing past.

Poe is an undignified heap on the floor. The guy who saved him sighs, pulls his bicycle up onto the pavement, leans the bike against the railings, then leans down to give Poe a hand up. “You gotta watch where you’re going, man, this corner’s a death trap.”

“Yeah, I’ll remember that for next time,” Poe says. He finally gets a good luck at the man who rescued him. His eyes might go slightly wide. The guy is… amazingly good looking. Soft kind eyes, beautiful brown skin, and a wide smile. Poe’s a little in love. “Hey. Poe Dameron.” He sticks out his hand to shake, which is a little silly, considering they were just holding hands.

“You’re Leia Organa’s aide,” the man says. Poe nods – he doesn’t often get recognised, but it’s not creepy when he does, he knows he’s rather distinctive and if you follow politics at all you probably know who he is. “Let me guess, you’re running late because the Circle and the District lines are down, and you still haven’t worked out how to navigate the bus routes?”

“Go it in one,” Poe responds. “Speaking of, I better be going—”

He looks out to the streets. He can see the top of St. Stephen’s, barely visible between the skyscrapers, and the crush of tourists that are between him and it.

“Hop on,” the man says, gesturing to the pannier rack on the back of his bike. “I’ll have you there in no time.”

Normally, Poe would be cautious about this sort of thing. But it’s the back of a bike, and this guy seems nice, and he just probably saved Poe’s life; and he’s just getting later and later each minute. “Are you sure this thing’s safe?” Poe asks, perched slightly precariously.

“It is as long as you hold on,” the guy says.

**vi )**

“He was so hot, Karé, like I can’t even describe it to you, it was like a god themselves descended from the heavens to save my life.”

“And yet you failed to even get this guy’s name, let alone number?” Karé’s voice sparkles across the phone line. “Honestly, Poe, you’re useless. What are you going to do, stand around contemplating throwing yourself into London traffic in hopes that he might save you?”

“Sounds a little risky,” Poe says, as if the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. “Besides, he knows who I am, and where to find me. If he’s interested, he could just look me up.” Poe can hear Leia shouting at some poor dignitary, so it’s probably time to stop this conversation and go and sort that mess out. “Got to go, Karé, sorry.”

He bundles the visitors out of Leia’s office with apologies and promises that they can come back when it’s a better time. Organa just sighs, the worry lines on her forehead particularly prominent today. “Anything I can do for you, ma’am?”

“Explain why I’m dealing with your love life problems, for one.” Poe looks confused. He’s been complaining to everyone sans Leia, so he doesn’t understand why this is a problem. At his look of confusion, she goes: “Oh hells, did I not give it to you?” She fishes for something in her bag and hands Poe a folded note. “Special delivery from my niece. Seems you two have a mutual friend.”

The note is from Poe’s beautiful bicycle saviour, who’s name, it appears, is Finn.

**vii )**

Finn is not only beautiful, but funny and clever and incredible. He went to university with Leia’s brother’s partner’s adopted daughter – Rey – who is his best friend, which is the reason he knew Poe’s name rather than his face. He’s native to London, so finds Poe’s distaste for the city rather… hilarious, really.

“You just haven’t found the right bit of it, yet,” he insists, which is a wonderful excuse for Poe to spend all the more time with the man.

Their first kiss is on Tower Bridge, the water of the Thames rushing past below, with the Tower of London floodlit behind them, but Poe only has eyes for Finn, who is so so so beautiful he breaks Poe’s heart.

**viii )**

Now that he has Finn, the time spent in London no longer seems so bad. Sure, Poe prefers the Scottish Wilds – and he spends enough time up there, Leia moving to consolidate power in her homeland – but that sort of pales next to Finn’s company.

He’s tried, unsuccessfully, to get Finn to move up to Scotland with him. But Finn is an inner-city boy through and through. Besides, he’s heard horror stories from Rey about her childhood spent in some of the most remote place in Scotland and wants no part of it.

(“It’s not all that bad!” Poe will say. Rey’s dads are currently living on an island where the population barely reaches double figures in the summer months. Their excuse is that they prefer the quiet, which Poe can get, but it’s a little extreme even for him.)

Still, they have an arrangement that works; Poe keeps his flat in Edinburgh, not far from Leia’s constituency office, while Finn keeps his flat in London, and Poe spends most of his time there when he’s in London, when he’s not battling through Westminster politics.

“I love you,” Poe says, one morning, when the dawn light is barely breaking but there’s been an emergency and Poe is needed in the office immediately.

Sleepy eyed and clutching a mug of tea, Finn kisses him. “I know.”

**ix )**

“She wants me to run for Dundee West,” Poe says to Finn over dinner, one evening. “She thinks I can win it.”

It would be a significant step up; out of Leia Organa’s shadow to his own parliamentary seat. He’s been her adviser for so long that it feels odd to even be contemplating anything else. But it’s been a long time coming, and Poe knows that.

“That’s great,” Finn says, all sunshine and smiles.

Poe is not so sure. “We’d have to move,” he says. “And it would be a big commitment. From both of us. It’s not something we can just do lightly.”

Finn puts his cutlery down. He stills for a moment. So far, he’s kept himself out of politics, having little interest beyond believing that Poe and Leia were doing the right thing. “It’s time,” he says. “You sure there’s space in your campaign for a man like me?”

“I wouldn’t be considering it if there wasn’t.”

**x )**

Poe’s stayed up for plenty of previous election nights, noting party gains and losses, but it’s never been him personally on the line before. In the handful of seats that have already declared, they’ve made significant gains. He’s campaigned his heart out, won the love of the locals, gained himself national prominence far beyond what he had before. It should be a comfortable victory.

But still, Poe can’t shake his nerves. “It’ll be fine,” Finn says, besides him, clasping Poe’s hand. “You’re incredible. They’d be fools not to want you representing them.”

Poe nods. He’s glad that Finn is here, glad that he’s been here this whole time, through thick and thin. Most of his friends have helped out – Iolo distributed fliers, Karé doorstepped like a woman possessed, Rey’s dad had even come down to lend a hand – but Poe doesn’t think he could have done it without Finn.

“They’re ready to announce,” Rey says to Poe. “Good luck.”

She claps his shoulder and Poe lets go of Finn’s hand and goes to face his future. But with a smile like Finn’s in it… it can’t be bad, whatever it is.  



End file.
